Yesterday I met the girlfriend of my brother for the first time, they came all the way from Beijing, for spending Xmas with my family. Apple is a very nice lady, my brother is a lucky boy!!!
A while ago she wrote me a letter about the 'Chinese Tigers'.
Do you remember I blogged about my collection of Chinese cat shoes and hats?
Well they ar not cats but tigers! stupid me!!!
This is what Apple wrote me about the tiger - cats!!!:
I want to explain to you about the chinese collections. they are tigers. not cats~...^^;
In China, from a long time ago, in most places of north china, people give the hand-made tiger shoes and tiger hats also tiger pillows to kids.
They are all made of cotton and cloth, above all the collor is bright and lightweight, it's the most comfortable stuff for kids.
Tiger means strength and power, it's a good wish to babys and children, wish them grow up healthy, strong like a tiger, and also wish the tiger can keep them and the whole family to avoid evil spirits, in safety.
You can see a “王' on the forehead. it's a word of 'king' in chinese. In chinese culture tiger is the king of the animal world.
I believe the blue shoes it must be forgotten to add 王 on!~ The first red one on your blog seems like a pillow.:)
If you are interested in chinese tiger hand-made things, you can google '虎头鞋' hutou xie (tiger head shoe),'虎头枕' hutou zhen（～ pillow).
You can see there are lots of different tigers. different place make them in different style. and now only some country grandmas know the way to make them.
In China, from a long time ago, in most places of north china, people give the hand-made tiger shoes and tiger hats also tiger pillows to kids.
They are all made of cotton and cloth, above all the collor is bright and lightweight, it's the most comfortable stuff for kids.
Tiger means strength and power, it's a good wish to babys and children, wish them grow up healthy, strong like a tiger, and also wish the tiger can keep them and the whole family to avoid evil spirits, in safety.
You can see a “王' on the forehead. it's a word of 'king' in chinese. In chinese culture tiger is the king of the animal world.
I believe the blue shoes it must be forgotten to add 王 on!~ The first red one on your blog seems like a pillow.:)
If you are interested in chinese tiger hand-made things, you can google '虎头鞋' hutou xie (tiger head shoe),'虎头枕' hutou zhen（～ pillow).
You can see there are lots of different tigers. different place make them in different style. and now only some country grandmas know the way to make them.
Thanks Apple for this explanation!
Ah well, my felted cat brooches are definitely inspired by the China tigers, but they turned out cats!
(Don't go looking for them in my shop, they all sold out at the fair yesterday!)
